Mumbai Police committed to fight against drug menace

Mumbai: Mumbai Police today observed the ‘International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’ with a commitment to wipe out the menace from the city.

The anti-narcotic cell of Mumbai Police, mandated to deal with such cases, launched a motto ‘No place for Drug..Just Say No’ appealing to the people of Mumbai to stay away from the use of psychotropic substances.

“Our men will visit schools and colleges and also contact NGO workers to make a sustainable impact of our drive, which will continue for a fortnight,” Mumbai Police spokesman Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

According to the statistics revealed by police in a statement issued here, from January to May this year, police registered 115 cases under NDPS Act and arrested 152 accused.

During different cases and crackdowns, police seized a total of 608 kgs of contrabands, including 232 kg of heroin, 20 kgs charas, 340 kgs ganja and 14 kgs mephedrone. The seized drugs are worth around Rs 11.13 crore, police said.

Beside, police also registered 7,704 cases of consumption of the contraband and arrested 8,758 accused in this regard in the five months.

When asked if Mumbai was becoming ‘drug capital’ of the country, Kulkarni said, “I don’t think so, but considering the largest population of the city, like other cases, drug hauls have really been high and this is also because we have put hard efforts to crackdown such cases.”

The Mumbai Police’s drive against drug menace assumes significance as in recent months, its image was marred by controversies, including its personnel found involved in drug trade.

Notably, head constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe, attached to Marine Drive police station here, was arrested on March 9 after 114 kgs of mephedrone (also called ‘meow-meow’) was found at his house in Satara district of western Maharashtra.
Another 12 kgs of the drug was found in his locker at the Marine Drive police station.

On May 29, the crime branch had arrested five police personnel in connection with the same drug racket, in which Kalokhe and a woman, Shashikala alias Baby Patankar, were found to be the prime accused.